Before all the news, we'd like to greatly thank everyone who helped out with the new map. This includes those who helped build, gave suggestions, and helped test. It could not have been as awesome as it is without all of you.

Our focus with this year's reset was to refine the Drug theme that we have developed. You won't see many huge changes to gameplay over last map (unless you join the police), but we can guarantee that your gameplay will be much smoother than last map. We've got some much better server hardware, and we're hoping to see almost no lag, even with 100+ players, with much better performance than last year's reset. Now let's get into some of the changes you'll be seeing with the new map.

Spawn
As always, we've made a completely new spawn world from the ground up. We chose a totally new theme this map, a western/mesa/desert canyon. Here's a map of the spawn you can use to familiarize yourself with the new layout:

PvP Changes
Due to many complaints about the length of PvP fights last map, we've made some changes. XP bottles are now unobtainable. However, mending is still obtainable and works. Gold apples now have a one minute cooldown, and super gold apples have a five minute cooldown.

Villagers
Because of some villager farms that were being used near the end of last map, we've decided to make these farms almost impossible. Villagers do not spawn anywhere on the map, so the only villagers available are going to be the ones that spawned in the villages when the world generated.

Police Changes
We made some requested changes to police this map, as well as adding a huge new gameplay aspect for them. The police station is now much closer to spawn, making it easier for police to get back onto duty after selling. The station is still in between spawn and prison, making it easy for them to intercept anyone heading that way. Police now have the ability to buy breweries at spawn, which they will own permanently. These properties contain the equipment to brew different alcoholic beverages, with a wide range of effects and potency. These beverages can be sold to players, giving police a new method of income.

Crate Trade Ups
A brand new and exclusive feature to MCDrugs - by doing the command /tradeup you can trade 9 items of the same rarity from any similar crates to get one random item from the next rarity up. For example, if you trade up 9 common spawners you will get 1 uncommon spawner. You can combine items from different crates, so if you use 8 common spawners and 1 common from the Legacy crate you will have an 8/9 chance to get a random common spawner and a 1/9 chance to get an uncommon Legacy crate item. We think this will revolutionize the way that crate items are used on the server and we really hope you enjoy it.
Horse Changes
The mules we had last map were barely ever purchased by experienced players, so some changes have been made. Mules are now static, meaning they do not level up and have the same speed forever. The speed of the Tier 1, 2, and 3 mules are now as fast as the base speed of their respective horse tiers, but the horses are able to level up and more than double their base speed, however they cost much more. Horse levelling has also been increased, with the max level for horses being 100, and the chunks needed to be travelled to level up increased a lot.

The Mines
The mines were pretty useless outside of the first couple ranks last map, so I've made some changes. There are now 6 mines available throughout the first set of ranks (and a new one at both prestige two and five). Each mine is a bit better than the last, and a new mine is unlocked about every second rankup until RASTA. Police also now have eight mines available, which can all be unlocked in the first set of police ranks. I hope this will enourage more higher-ranked players to use the mines.

Voting Rewards
Voting rewards have been adjusted this map. We've changed the points per vote from 10 to 5, however you now receive 2 mcMMO credits per vote. Premium members get 6 points and 4 mcMMO credits per vote. The money per vote remains at $2000. Vote party rewards have also been tweaked, reducing the amount of diamonds and iron given out increasing the chance of getting higher tier voter keys. Voter crates were all adjusted, and the chance of getting each reward is now shown.

Tag Crates
We wanted to have more choice for cosmetics this map, so we're introducing more tag crates. At the start of the map, there will be the Tag Crate 1, Tag Crate 2, Tag Crate 3, and Country Tag Crate. Instead of purchasing inidividual keys, you can now buy a Tag Crate Token, which you can trade in for any tag crate key. We plan to actively release more tag crates, while phasing out the older ones.

Donator Abilities
/near is being reduced to a radius of 40 blocks for the first bit of the new map, in order to reduce how unfair the ability is to players who do not have a donator rank.

Hoppers and Banned Farms
Hoppers will remain uncraftable for this map, still costing $2500 each. For the beginning of the map, we're keeping certain farm designs (the type that use lots of flowing water or pistons at once) banned, however we will see how the new hardware performs, and the ban may be repealed.

The Casino & The Lion Rewards
The slot machines have been re-balanced and tweaked, some of the slots you knew before are totally new on the insides - even if they look the same on the outside! We have built an entirely exclusive casino rewards system from the ground up . Each and every dollar you play at the casino is tracked and the more you play, the more rewards you earn. You can progress through the tiers of The Lion Rewards just by playing on the slots, you can even earn points by donating to the mega-lottery, /casinorewards in game to check it out.

Finally...
We aren't going to explain every tiny detail we have changed this year, we'd prefer you all to just get on and give it a go. This year, as always, is a true MC-Drugs style reset. We have rebuilt the server from the ground up and together as a team challenged ideas that we have relied on for years, to make improvements on things that we thought were perfect. We understand that our desire to innovate has kept us as the number one drug server for the past five years. We're confident that this year will be the absolute best MC-Drugs has ever been, and to those veterans who have been with us for the half a decade we've been running know just how grand that claim is.

Again, this would not have been possible without the utter dedication of the staff team and those who tagged along to build, make suggestions or test. It's been another tough build season, but we can't wait to see you all on the new map.